igS BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



In canning certain kinds of food it has been customary 

 to add some mild antiseptic to aid in the subsequent pres- 

 ervation. Borax, for instance, has frequently been used to 

 check the development of any bacteria that may be left in 

 meat after the process of canning. From the facts already 

 given it will be seen that the presence of borax in canned 

 foods is totally unnecessary, provided sufficient care is taken 

 in the canning. Its use was a means of covering up a lack 

 of thoroughness in canning, and it has been found in the 

 cheaper products ; if the material had not been heated 

 enough to produce complete sterilization, it might still be 

 preserved in cans if sufficient borax were added. In large 

 packing factories where a great amount of food, particularly 

 meat, is to be canned at once, it had become quite common 

 to use a certain amount of such a preservative to cover up 

 this lack of complete sterilization and prevent subsequent 

 loss. The method is, of course, more economical, because 

 it does not require so much heat and because there is a very 

 much smaller per cent of loss. Whether the material thus 

 preserved is unwholesome is a question that has not yet been 

 positively settled, but the sale of it is to-day forbidden by 

 the national Pure Food Law, although benzoate of soda is 

 allowed in certain foods. In household canning it may be 

 given as a universal rule that no preservatives of any sort 

 should be used. 



Practical Suggestions. Nearly any type of food can be 

 preserved by canning. Some materials, however, are very 

 much more easily preserved than others. Meats are pre- 

 served with great ease, but it is rarely worth while in the 

 household to can meat, since fresh meat can be bought in 

 civilized countries at all seasons of the year. When one 



